That seems pretty easy and straight forward. Anything else that you guys can suggest?

Also, Inara doesn't seem to realize that she can bend her body while in the heel position. If I lure her in a circle, she can spin in a tight little circle, either direction, with no problem. But try to do 360's in the heel position and she is stiff as can be. Ideas?

"Remember - every time your dog gets somewhere on a tight leash *a fairy dies and it's all your fault.* Think of the fairies." http://www.positivepetzine.com"

For hind end awareness I also like teaching a 2 on, 2 off. Basically it's the step up in the video you posted, but with back feet on the book instead of front feet.

I also taught Renee to put her feet in a hula hoop. I started with a big hoop that she had no trouble fitting in, then moved to a smaller hoop. Here's a video shortly after we moved to the smaller hoop. By the end you can see her thinking about where all of her feet are. I did this all by shaping with the clicker.

I do these things...but I also play games where they have to get into something small (like the hula hoop but with sides). This could help Inara too...with being flexible.

I originally started teaching them to go into a laundry basket to curl up...I saw this idea from a woman who needed her HUGE GSD SD to go on a airplane with her. She taught him to curl up in the laundry basket, and put a cue to it. Because it was small, but with flexible sides, it was a great way to teach him to curl up small. So I started using it in my classes, to help with the SDs in training and puppies. I found it also helped with hind-end awareness, because they have to pick up each foot and place it in the basket.

It's easy, because I don't know of a single person that doesn't have a laundry basket! Of course with The Wiener I had to use something smaller...but most medium-large sized dogs can use a regular-sized laundry basket.

Walking through ladders or low poles on the ground also help with hind-end awareness.

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw

I did this with Dylan a while back, but used a stool. It was a fun exercise and it did help him. He was one of those dogs that was unaware that he existed behind his shoulders and I didn't like how he would lose his hind end while heeling. But, working on the hind end awareness stuff with him really helped and it was cool to watch him start using his butt and back feet to find where he should be.

Erin, I have a question.Does Fig already have a command that means to get up on something? If he does, why not just use that to get him to start to get in the basket and then click/reward for each step from there?

furever_pit wrote:Erin, I have a question.Does Fig already have a command that means to get up on something? If he does, why not just use that to get him to start to get in the basket and then click/reward for each step from there?

he does have a sort of cue for getting up on stuff...it's a casual cue of "get up" or "up"...but nothing we ever work on much. At this point in his training, he didn't have any sort of cue like that...the video's pretty old.

When I shape a behavior, I don't speak to them usually...not even to get them started if it's something that they know already...I want to see what they can work out on their own. They might surprise me with something fun. The only time I say anything to them while shaping is if we're playing the "What's New?" game...in which case I tell them if I've seen the behavior already.

"I don't have any idea if my dogs respect me or not, but they're greedy and I have their stuff." -- Patty Ruzzo

"Dogs don't want to control people. They want to control their own lives." --John Bradshaw